Foreign Affairs

The strikes on Iran by Israel and the U.S. provoked a critical but very restrained response from the Kremlin. On June 23, Vladimir Putin said the attack was “unjustifiable and inexcusable,” but his criticism of both the U.S. and Israel was very cautious, and it appears that Russia's support for Iran won’t go beyond those words. This is not surprising: as documents from the FSB’s counterintelligence service obtained by The Insider show, despite the apparent rapprochement with Tehran, relations between Russia and Iran are fraught with mutual distrust, and both countries continue to actively spy on one another. Sources in the Russian intelligence services maintain that, despite the rapprochement, Russia still views Iran more as an enemy than an ally and does not want to allow Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons.

Following the rapid collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime this past December, Russia’s primary espionage hub in the Middle East shifted from Syria to Iran. However, Moscow’s deepening ties with Tehran had already begun in 2022, as evidenced by a surge in flights to Iran by Russian intelligence operatives. The Insider has uncovered who runs the GRU’s residency in Tehran, which banks and shipping companies profit from the supply of combat drones bringing death to Ukraine, and why Russian spies in Iran owe their drinks to the FSB’s Fifth Service.